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Sugar Glider Sugar Bear Nutrition 1
The topic of diet is hotly debated on the internet, but there is a lot of false information regarding expensive and time consuming homemade concoctions. Most health problems in sugar glider sugar bears are related to an improper diet.
Homemade diets promoted on the internet go by names like HPW, BML, Leadbeater’s and a wide variety of hybrids. These diets may be fine in theory but are just not practical for an average person that require hard to obtain items as ingredients that are expensive and hard to prepare. Over time, owners simply follow a simplified and modified version based on whatever they can find and this leads to malnutrition in their pet over time. This is similar to the problem with exotic birds back in the mid 1980s.
Veterinary science today knows about the dietary requirements of sugar glider sugar bears, and therefore very effective pellet foods are commercially available today, that are not only healthier with high nutritional value but also much cheaper. The two best pellet foods are found to be “Glide-R-Chow™” by Vet’s Pride and “NutriMax™” by Pocket Pets organization. They cost about $5 a month per animal and are both excellent choices. This forms the core nutritional foundation of a sugar glider sugar bear’s diet, that is 75% of the animal’s needs. The rest 25% must come from fresh fruits and vegetables, which is about 1/8th a slice of apple or equivalent in other fruits or vegetables. Sugar glider sugar bears love sweet foods like fruits, yogurts and insects and given a choice would prefer these over nutritious foods.
Finally, there should be calcium based multivitamin, the absence of which can cause some serious health problems. Sugar glider sugar bears need a specific ratio of calcium, phosphorous and Vitamin D3 for health and survival. The best thing to do is have a vitamin supplement specifically for the chosen pellet food and never select a multivitamin that isn’t made specially for sugar glider sugar bears.
To feed your pet, place about 2 ounces of pellet food in their cage all the time, dump the crumbs each day and refill the bowl halfway. At night, put fresh fruits and vegetables in the cage, without dicing them into small pieces, and every other night, sprinkle with multivitamin. A small plastic box is an important equipment that forms the dining room, without which a lot of food will be wasted as these animals jump and play around in the cage. The box should be at least 4 inches tall, turned upside down with a hole at each end.
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